Ben-Ari to Run Together with Marzel and Ben-Gvir

MK Michael Ben-Ari and nationalist activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir will run on an independent list in the upcoming elections.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 10/29/2012, 3:16 AM

MK Michael Ben Ari

Flash 90

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) and nationalist activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir will run on an independent list in the upcoming elections, it was announced Sunday.

Channel 2 News reported that the three have identified that a vacuum was created on the right side of the political map by the union between the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu parties.

The three are expected to launch an aggressive election campaign in the next few days, said the report. A part of the campaign was already circulated on Sunday and it shows the three candidates under the slogan “the only ones who understand Arabic.” The slogan is a play on a slogan used by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman during the previous election – “Only Lieberman understands Arabic”.

The new party's campaign is expected to deal with the Arab Knesset members currently serving in the Knesset, including MKs Hanin Zoabi and Ahmed Tibi, who have more than once publicly acted against Israeli interests.

The campaign is also expected to deal with the issue of the infiltrators from Africa. Ben-Ari and Marzel, who head a group called Neighborhood Watch aimed at maintaining the Jewish character of Israeli neighborhoods, have constantly warned about and protested against the phenomenon of illegal infiltration into Israel.

The three said that a private poll they conducted found that a party headed by Ben-Ari would receive at least two seats in the Knesset.

Ben-Ari recently announced that he would be leaving the National Union party, after the party announced it would run on a joint Knesset list with the Jewish Home party. The joint list has left Ben-Ari feeling he would not be in a realistic spot that would guarantee him being a part of the next Knesset.